This week the Olsbergs MSE team in partnership with the RallyX Nordic series have been hosting a ‘RX Quarantine‘ race at Höljes where drivers have been simulating a race week with a full schedule while testing their Supercar Lites cars.
The event was hosted in the FIA World Rallycross Championship venue at Höljes in Sweden behind closed doors, fans could follow livestreams on their social media platforms while they were racing.
Four RX2 regulars took part in the simulated race; Linus Östlund, Martin Enlund, Simon Olofsson and Niklas Aneklev. They were joined by the Swedish crosskart champion Nils Andersson who entered in the Thoréns i Kil machine, the remaining car was a functioned as a wildcard car called ‘joker car’, in each session a new driver went out with it.
Johan Kristoffersson dominated the first day on Tuesday, claiming the first heat victory and was also fastest during the free-practice earlier in the day in the so called ‘joker car’.
The race continued with the rest of the qualifying heats and the final on Wednesday, in the first heat of the morning it was Olofsson who took the win of Q2 and Östlund dominated the rest of the heats by winning Q3 and Q4.
For Q3 the ‘joker car’ was used by Oliver Eriksson and his brother Kevin Eriksson used it in Q4.
In the final, Östlund took an early lead and held until the finish to claim his ‘first victory’ for the season, he was around 3.5 second quicker than the second place finisher Olofsson and third place finisher Enlund.
Team principal Andreas Eriksson ended up in fourth place with the ‘joker car’, Aneklev followed up with the fifth place and newcomer Andersson rounded up in the sixth place.
“It feels really good, it was a lot of fun to actually go racing again – I’ve been waiting a long time! This is the perfect start to the season.” Östlund, said.
“Im super happy, especially considering 2013 was the last time I sat in this car, I felt very comfortable behind Linus and was hoping to maintain that pace for the full six laps, but then the gas went onto full-throttle. Normally I like that – but not everywhere! That caused gearchange problems and the joker lap was an adventure all in itself…
“Overall, though, it was just so much fun – the best thing I’ve done in a long time. To all the other old guys out there, you really should try this!”
Beside the simulation racing, some Supercar drivers showed up to test their machinery before the season starts. Daniel Thorén, the team owner of TiK RX, had Oliver Solberg test his Volkswagen Polo. Olsbergs MSE’s brothers Oliver and Kevin also went out and tested one of their Ford Fiesta MK8 and Honda Civic Coupé.
Euro RX newcomer Linus Westman also appeared out on the track with his new machinery and RX2 regular Anders Michalak was spotted in an older generation Olsbergs MSE Ford Fiesta MK7.
